Transforming Seminarian

A Brief History of G.B. Blackrock - Part One

2012-01-27T07:30:00.000-08:00

OK. So we've been told that the old Marvel Transformers comic continuity is being picked up again, starting with a Free Comic Book Day issue in May. The good folks at Comic Book Resources have released a preview that gives us a little more information. Obviously, this has generated some speculation about just what lies in store, and I've been following all of that with interest. But what really caught my attention was the fact that G.B. Blackrock was one of the characters "we can expect" to see featured in the new stories. Having used that name as my main Transformers-forum alias for many years now, and having gone to the trouble to create a custom figure of the character, Blackrock is obviously a character I'm pleased to see again. So, for the benefit of those who only know of Blackrock from the occasional mention of his name here on the blog, it's time to fill in Blackrock's story.
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Montreat! Montreat! Montreat!

2012-01-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

Although I've certainly shared videos, myself, I have to admit that I really wish that people didn't share videos on Facebook and elsewhere as much as they do. I would much rather everything shared was text. The reason for this is that I do much of my browsing during downtime at work, and I don't wish to disturb my co-workers with the sound (obviously, an audio-only piece can be even worse). Also, it's much easier to leave a page of text alone when a task comes in, and come back to it once I'm done, than it is with video.

All this means is that, when I started to see this video of "Stuff Presbyterian Seminarians Say" making the rounds on Facebook Monday morning, I waited until I was at home that evening to finally watch it. You can watch the video for yourself after the jump, or just go straight on to my comments.
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Year of the Dragon: Let's Update Cryotek

2012-01-23T19:30:00.000-08:00

I've been getting a lot of e-mails and notices informing me that it's Chinese New Year time, and that specifically this will be the year of the Dragon. I figure it's as good an opportunity as any to revisit one of my dragon-themed Transformers, and quickly realized that my old Cryotek entry had pretty lousy pictures, and that I could almost certainly do better.

I invite you to head back to the entry and see the new robot mode and dragon mode images (I confess that I didn't retake the "dragster" picture, which needed it less, anyway).

Transformers Feature: Gutcruncher with Reprolabels

2012-01-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

This entry has been a long time in coming.

A little less than five years ago, I announced the completion of my collection of American-released Action Master figures with the acquisition of Gutcruncher. I made that claim by the standard of having all of the actual figures themselves, even though I didn't then—and still don't to this day—actually have all of the accessories that came with each figure if one was to buy them at retail in the early 1990s. Although I was able to get all of the accessories for Gutcruncher when I procured the Gutcruncher figure, they came with none of the stickers applied. At the end of my original Gutcruncher post, I commented that I had contacted the folks at Reprolabels about getting a set of Gutcruncher labels made. Such a set was finally made available a few months ago, and I made sure to order my set!
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On Dealing with Bullies

2012-01-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

Mark Driscoll is a bully.

I'm not unaware that to call someone a "bully" (and I'm not the first person to do so) is to resort to name-calling, and I'm not really a fan of conscious name-calling (not that I advocate for doing it unconsciously, so much as I recognize that—being human—I don't always realize when I've failed to uphold my own ideals). But I find that the only other word I can come up with to describe the man, based on what I've read of his own words and his interactions with other Christian leaders, is "thuggish," and that amounts to much the same thing.
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He Speaks French!

2012-01-16T07:30:00.000-08:00

There is so much one could say about the political campaigning going on these days. Thankfully, here in California we're not targeted by the bulk of it just at the moment. I hope that holds true for just a while longer.
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"...More Guns Than a Tea Party Convention in AZ"

2012-01-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, this is not a political post, but a Transformers-related one. The quote comes from alt.toys.transformers member "Banzai-Tron" (here's the full post), and was simply too good to ignore.

Unless you follow Transformers a lot (or you've already clicked the link), it's probably not obvious from the arsenal laid out in the picture to the left, but that quote was talking about the BigBadToyStore reissue of the Seacons.
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Faith vs. Science: The Ongoing & Unnecessary Battle

2012-01-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

Between two churches, a seminary, and just generally being interested in this kind of thing, I daresay its safe to say that I hear a lot of prayer requests. These range all over the spectrum, but one I heard recently left a particularly bad taste in my mouth.
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Fear and Loathing in Marietta

2012-01-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

A certain segment of the blogosphere lit up late last week in response to some anti-Mormon and anti-Muslim comments made by a local state representative from Georgia. Here's the relevant bit, as reported in The Marietta Daily Journal:

I think Mitt Romney is a nice man, but I’m afraid of his Mormon faith,” Manning said. “It’s better than a Muslim. Of course, every time you look at the TV these days you find an ad on there telling us how normal they are. So why do they have to put ads on the TV just to convince us that they’re normal if they are normal? … If the Mormon faith adhered to a past philosophy of pluralism, multi-wives, that doesn’t follow the Christian faith of one man and one woman, and that concerns me.

Parish Politics

2012-01-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

A recent conversation has got me thinking about politics in church.

No, I'm not talking about the recent Iowa caucuses, nor about how some preachers might tell people in their churches how to vote. Rather, I'm thinking about the ways in which different personalities play off of each other in getting the work of the church done.
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Parades and Positive Publicity

2012-01-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

To hear the way that some people respond whenever they hear the name of Jesus Christ proclaimed in positive way public, you'd think they lived in a world in which he was never mentioned at all, and thus they're drinking up the mention of the name as though it were a drop of water after having spent the past month in the desert dying of thirst.
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Game Show Board Games: TV Scrabble

2012-01-02T21:30:00.000-08:00

As the show itself regularly announced, "it's the crossword game you've played all your life, but never quite like this!" Scrabble has certainly not been the only game show to spin out of a popular pre-existing board game, but I daresay that it was one of the more successful, lasting for nearly six years in its original run (and earning a second run a few years later that admittedly only lasted a few months). Oddly enough, the game was changed so significantly from the original Scrabble that a separately-sold "TV" version was pretty much a necessity if one was to try to play this version at home. Just having a regular Scrabble set just wouldn't cut it.
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Transformers Feature: Vector Prime

2011-12-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

New Year's is upon us, so why not do a feature on the Transformers version of "Father Time" himself? Of course, I'm referring to Vector Prime. Vector Prime is a member of "the Thirteen." In theory, these are the 13 original Transformers as created by Primus, and each of these Transformers was given a special power to help defend the universe. In Vector Prime's case, that power is mastery over the space-time continuum.
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Transformers Feature: Shattered Glass Goldbug

2011-12-28T10:30:00.000-08:00

At BotCon 2008, the "Shattered Glass" universe was introduced. Although there is still a bit of a divide within the fandom as to the merits of the alternate universe concept, I think it's fair to say by now that the franchise has given Fun Publications a venue for creating stories and toys that are unique to their properties (that is, the official Transformers club and the BotCon convention), and that sell quite well. In fact, the toys from the 2008 convention set go for such high prices these days (and I've needed the money badly enough) that I have to confess that I have already sold all of my 2008 official Shattered Glass toys except for Goldbug.
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Shopping for Baby Clothes

2011-12-26T19:45:00.000-08:00

Lest I give anyone the wrong impression, I should hasten to say that my wife is NOT expecting.

Oddly enough, I'm not talking about shopping for any of my young nieces and nephews, either (although my youngest nephew, at a few months old, might nonetheless have been benefited from this adventure when I get to meet him in a few days, had it not worked out as I hoped). Rather, I was shopping for a Muppet.
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on Christmas Eve

2011-12-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

The Revised Common Lectionary isn't just a guide to Scripture passages for Sunday worship. It also has suggested scriptures for other important days on the church calendar. Sometimes these special days are called "festivals." Christmas Eve is one such "festival" celebrated with a special worship gathering by many Presbyterian churches. As such, I thought it might be helpful to use this Friday's slot (the last on which I'll be featuring "Reflectionary" posts for the foreseeable future) to discuss the scripture passages for Christmas Eve worship. These passages are the same every year, as opposed to following the three-year cycle of most Revised Common Lectionary readings. As usual, all links are to the CEB via BibleGateway.com, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).

Long-time and especially dedicated readers among you may recognize most of the text here as being identical to the podcast version I've linked to in the past (although there I'm still using the now-defunct TNIV). If you are such a person, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continuing support. And to everyone, a very Merry Christmas!
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As Much Story As We Need

2011-12-21T09:30:00.000-08:00

One of the elements of the "Godly Play" curriculum is to ask the children, after having told the story for the morning, if there are any parts of the story that they could leave out, and still have all the story that they need. When I first heard this phrase, my evangelical impulse was to say "of course not!" After all, the Biblical texts were given to us, as they are, for a reason, right? If God didn't want some element to be there, it wouldn't be there, right?
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Reflections on Art and Charles Dickens

2011-12-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

Shortly before Fuller Seminary closes up for Christmas vacation each December, the staff are treated to an annual Christmas party. This year, while waiting for the munchies to be served, I had the privilege of speaking with Fuller President Richard Mouw for a bit. Among other things, he asked about what books I've been reading, and I was able to tell him that I've been working through the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. Perhaps somewhat ironically, although I've seen and heard numerous versions of this story over the years on television, at the movies, and on radio, I've never actually read through the original before, and thanks to the easy access to Public Domain works provided by the Nook, this has seemed a good time to do so.
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Dealing with Rejection

2011-12-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

Thank you very much for taking the time to fill out an application...

...Unfortunately, your name was not among those who will be nominated...

I hope that you can imagine how difficult it was... to have so MANY good folks to choose from—you among them—and not be able to select them all!

Perhaps the words above seem familiar to you. I imagine most adults have gotten rejection letters of some kind or another at some time in their lives. However well-intentioned and even honest the words may attempt to be, the result is still inevitably bad news, and no one wants to have to read one of these things.
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on December 18th, 2011

2011-12-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here are the passages for December 18, 2011, the 4th Sunday in Advent (Year B). All links are to the CEB via BibleGateway.com, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).

As I have been doing all through Advent, I'd like to invite readers to consider how the themes of Advent are advanced by reading these passages this week.
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Photo Contest Entry: Attack of the G2 Decepticons

2011-12-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

The latest contest run by the folks at the Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club asked members to depict "ANY of the Fun Publications produced Transformers toy(s) and showcase them in some sort of battle or adventure. ACTION is the key word!" As with another recent contest, I chose to use Action Master Thundercracker. After working so hard to get this toy made, I figure I should make the most of it!
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Offbeat Transformers Collectibles: Fruit Flavored Snacks

2011-12-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

This little oddity is something I found during a recent trip to the so-called 99 Cents Only Store. Of course, I may have to rethink my title, since this is obviously no more collectible than the Valentine's Candy was, but ah, well....
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on December 11th, 2011

2011-12-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here are the passages for December 11, 2011, the 3rd Sunday in Advent (Year B). All links are to the CEB via BibleGateway.com, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).
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Parables Aren't Like This

2011-12-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

Many of Jesus' parables follow a familiar pattern: "The kingdom of heaven is like..." and he goes on to give some illustration from the world of their day that might help his audience to understand heaven just a little better. It seems to me that these illustrations are always in the affirmative. That is to say, Jesus always says "the kingdom of heaven is like such and such," rather than ever saying "the kingdom of heaven is not like such and such."
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Pasadena's Version of a Snow Day

2011-12-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

This past Thursday morning, when I woke up, I checked my alarm clock as I always do to see what time it was.

I couldn't, because the power was out.

Although blackouts are by no means common, I've lived through enough of them that I didn't let it bother me too much. I checked my watch to see that it was indeed time to get up, and so attempted to start my day. Since our bathroom has no windows, I could only do even the most basic of necessities by lighting a candle for minimal illumination. Not able to do much else, I decided to go ahead and drive to work early.

I went outside, and saw the first examples of the damage done by the previous night's winds. We'd been told that they'd be pretty severe. "Hurricane force," in fact. So seeing that the pots and plants immediately outside most of my neighbors' apartments had been knocked about, and that the pool was filled with leaves and similar debris, was hardly a surprise, although seeing that the "School Crossing" sign across the street had been blown completely horizontal was rather unusual.
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on December 4th, 2011

2011-12-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

Here are the passages for December 4, 2011, the 2nd Sunday in Advent (Year B). All links are to the CEB via BibleGateway.com, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).

One big question for all the passages below: How are the themes of Advent (and ask yourself "What are the themes of Advent?" if that helps) advanced by reading these passages this week?
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Music from Montreat: Just Before Daybreak

2011-11-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

One of the benefits of Facebook is hearing from friends from other periods of one's life. One of my college friends, who like me had attended the Montreat Youth Conferences while in high school (a surprisingly small number of people, given that I attended college in Montreat!), shared this video from YouTube, which was truly a blast from the past. It features Ken Holt, the music leader for Weeks 3 and 4 of the 1990 Montreat Youth Conferences, singing the theme song for those conferences, "Just Before Daybreak." I didn't imagine that a song written for week-long Youth Conference more than 20 years ago would be available even on a place like YouTube, but now I'm curious to see what other gems of this kind I might find.
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An Advent Reflection

2011-11-28T07:30:00.000-08:00

For those of you who follow the Christian calendar, you'll already know that yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. In keeping with what has become a tradition at my church for several years now, we released an Advent Devotional booklet for our members, with a different reflection written by members of our community for each day from now until Christmas. Upon volunteering to write such a reflection for this year's booklet, I was asked to work with Isaiah 49:1-7. The following was edited slightly^* and included in the book for December 10th, but I'm going to go ahead and post it here today to kick off the season.
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on November 27th, 2011

2011-11-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here are the passages for November 27, 2011, the 1st Sunday in Advent (The first Sunday of the liturgical calendar, so we're now in Year B of the lectionary cycle). All links are to the CEB via BibleGateway.com, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).

Isaiah 64:1-9

People often associate the season of Advent with Christmas. And rightly so, given that it's the four Sundays immediately preceding the Christmas holiday, and many verses to be read during this season will involve explicitly Messianic promises or the prelude to the story of Jesus' birth. But there's more to the Advent season than just the story of a baby being born. Why do you think this passage is included during this time of year?

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

It may not mean anything, but I'm struck by the inclusion of the possessive pronoun "my" in verse 4, in the midst of Paul's standard greeting (he gives thanks to God for his audience in several epistles, often including this pronoun). Why is this possessive pronoun included? Does Paul doubt that his audience also considers God "their" God?

Mark 13:24-37

This passage certainly has little to do with the birth of the baby Jesus (which, of course, isn't covered in the gospel according to Mark at all, anyway)! As I said before, Advent isn't just a time for remembering that story. The inclusion of passages like this demonstrate that it also a time to reflect on Jesus' second coming.
Or does it? When Jesus says "I assure you that this generation won’t pass away until all these things happen," can he be talking about his return? Or does he mean something by "this generation" other than the lifetimes of those humans hearing his words?
What does it mean about Jesus that he says even "the Son" (presumably referring to himself, although I'm curious to hear if there's another interpretation) doesn't know when these things will take place?
Might this passage have any meaningful connection to the parable we read a few weeks ago, or is it talking about something entirely different?

Success, Assurance, and the Sims Social

2011-11-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

I've recently discovered the Sims Social on Facebook. It's hardly the first game, even on Facebook, that "simulates" a virtual world, but it certainly seems to be one of the more popular. Although this may seem like an obvious statement to some, it's perhaps an ironic one to others: a game that explicitly attempts to resemble (parts of) real life gets me thinking about real life in ways that I might not have thought about it without the simulation.
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on November 20th, 2011

2011-11-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here are the passages for November 20, 2011, Christ the King Sunday (sometimes referred to as Reign of Christ Sunday). Christ the King Sunday is the final Sunday of the liturgical year (Year A, in this case, on the Revised Common Lectionary). All links are to the CEB via BibleGateway.com, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).
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Obsessions, Distractions, and Allowing People to Serve

2011-11-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago, Scot McKnight posted an article about the consecration of women bishops in the Church of England. Naturally, this is causing the usual consternation among those who don't believe that God wants women to serve in church offices (much less the really high ones!). The article discusses some of the usual responses: some people are leaving the church (it specifically notes how some bishops and priests are taking the Catholic Church up on an offer to allow them to transfer over to Catholicism, but I'm sure that many Anglicans are leaving for other denominations, and some members are no doubt leaving altogether under some "I can be a better Christian without the church" mindset), while others are choosing to "fight from within." It's a familiar pattern by now.
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What Do You Miss?

2011-11-14T11:30:00.000-08:00

I admit that I don't really follow Country and Western music. That's probably why it took the first celebrity version of The Apprentice to introduce me to one of Trace Adkin's most popular songs: "You're Gonna Miss This," which he sang at the live season-ending event, and for which recordings were made available to support the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, a charity important to Adkins because his daughter suffers from such allergies. I was impressed by the song, thought the charity worth supporting, and so it now shows up regularly when I set my iPod to "shuffle." (I wish I could link to the specific version of the song that supported the charity, but I have been unable to locate it in iTunes.)
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on November 13th, 2011

2011-11-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

Although the Revised Common Lectionary runs on a three-year calendar, differences between years sometimes dictate that there aren't the same number of Sunday observances from one year to another. Thus, as I look at my three-year old writings, I realize that there was no 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time in 2008. The upshot of this is that I am actually writing these reflections with 2011 fully in mind.

Here are the passages for November 13, 2011, the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A). All links are to the CEB via BibleGateway.com, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).
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Remembering Wrath Side Story

2011-11-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

Back when I was in high school, I was a member of a local Star Trek fan club that met once a month. Besides watching episodes of the show (both original and Next Generation, but none of the other spin-offs existed yet at that point), we also enjoyed the occasional piece created by fans. One such film we watched, which was apparently presented live at a convention somewhere, was called Wrath Side Story.
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Game Show Board Games: Match Game (1974 2nd edition)

2011-11-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

"Get ready to match the stars!"

NBC did a version of The Match Game in the 1960's, but that's not the version that anyone remembers. The iconic version of Match Game is the version that started on CBS in 1973 (with the year proudly displayed after the name—Match Game '73—and changing each year as appropriate until the daytime network version was cancelled), which itself spawned a pair of successful syndicated versions (Match Game PM and The Match Game, the latter of which continued on for some time after the daytime version's end). Similarly, there were several home game versions of the NBC game, but I've neither seen any of those nor cared enough to spend much time searching for them. It's the iconic '70s version that I made the effort to add to my collection.
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on November 6th, 2011

2011-11-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the passages for November 6, 2011, the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A). All links are to the CEB via BibleGateway.com, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).
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Scot McKnight on Junia - Part 3

2011-11-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

As I wind down my reflections on Scot McKnight's discussion on Junia last week, I recognize that the topic of Junia is one that generates a fair bit of discussion in academic circles. Having talked about Junia's place in the early church, and how other women in Biblical history have similarly had their contributions silenced and forgotten, it's appropriate to ask "so, what do we do about it?"
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Scot McKnight on Junia - Part 2

2011-11-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Having established the back-and-forth of Junia's history of gender-swapping and whether or not s/he was an apostle, Scot McKnight, speaking to an audience at Fuller Theological Seminary last week, suggested that Junia has been silenced by elements of the church. As I mentioned on Monday, the title of the lecture was "Junia is Not Alone in the Church." Junia is not the only woman of significance to the church, and Junia is not alone in having been silenced.
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November is National Model Railroad Month

2011-11-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

I grew up around model railroading. The set you see here takes up the bulk of the room, and is merely the longest-standing part of my Dad's efforts in model railroading. Since November is National Model Railroad Month, today seems like a good day to share some pictures of the collection at my parents' home in Louisville, KY. The main part, as seen here, is an HO scale layout (to non- model train folks, that means 1:87.1 scale). This is the part that Dad started putting together while he was still in high school, and has mountains, buildings, trees, and so on.
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Scot McKnight on Junia – Part 1

2011-10-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Long-time readers know that I've followed Scot McKnight's blog, Jesus Creed, for several years now. So, naturally I wanted to see McKnight in person when he came to Fuller last week, sponsored by our school's continuing education department (and by the Burner Blog, which is produced by that department).

McKnight spoke on two occasions during his visit. The first was during our regularly-scheduled weekly chapel gathering, at which he spoke on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Although this was a challenging message worthy of commentary, I'm going to instead focus on the evening event, during which McKnight spoke about Romans 16, and specifically about the apostle Junia. The title of the lecture was "Junia is Not Alone in the Church."
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on October 30, 2011

2011-10-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the passages for October 30, 2011, the 31th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A). All links are to the CEB via BibleGateway.com, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).
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Not a God of Unconditional Apathy

2011-10-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

It has been said that the opposite of love is not hate, as is commonly supposed, but rather apathy. While I've heard this for a long while, I was nonetheless surprised by something said in a sermon I was listening to recently (but which was recorded a couple of years ago) that gave it a twist I'd never heard before.
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Sacred Place

2011-10-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, the pastor at my church preached a message drawing from Genesis 22, where Jacob has a vision of God at Bethel. In it, the pastor pointed out how the passage took care to mention several times that Jacob was in "a certain place," and how Jacob marked that place after his experience there. The pastor then talked about the ways that God is experienced in certain places in our own lives. While he was careful to acknowledge that God can be experienced in any place, the pastor paid attention to the ways in which the biblical narrative calls out specific places as having special meaning to God's people, as was the case for Jacob at Bethel. We were invited to think of those places in which we experienced God, and although I ultimately was able to come up with several, the first location that came to mind was Montreat.
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on October 23, 2011

2011-10-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

For those who've kept track, today's supposed to be the end of the world (less "again" this time and more "still"), according to Harold Camping. After the failure of the May 21st prophecies, the media hasn't said much about the "final end" that was supposed to come today. Although I've really already dealt with that issue back in May, I do want to at least mention the fact in passing.

That done, and since I have every reason to assume we'll all still be around, here are the passages for October 23, 2011, the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A). All links are to the CEB via BibleGateway.com, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).
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Humans Among Transformers Toys

2011-10-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

Although the Transformers franchise has always been primarily about giant transforming robots, the folks behind the fiction have generally sought to include a human element to the saga from the very beginning. But the proportion of human representation in the toyline itself has always been fairly low. While this perhaps isn't an exhaustive accounting, I'll try to cover the bases.

The first attempt to include figures of human characters came in Generation One, with the advent of the Headmasters and Targetmasters (and, later, Powermasters). Technically, these aren't humans, but an alien race called Nebulans. However, in the Marvel comics, Nebulans were all but indistinguishable from humans, so I'll include them (and, Spike, the "Nebulan leader" who came with the original Fortress Maximus, was a human).
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The Myth of the Middle Way

2011-10-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

"The Truth Lies Somewhere in the Middle." I've been trained to believe this mantra for most of my life. "Everything in Moderation." "Don't go to Extremes." It's certainly easy to understand the appeal of such a teaching, especially in a world where extremism seems to be the cause of so many of the world's ills. But as I've gotten older, I've come to realize that there are certain areas where "the middle" is not only not always the best solution, but it may actively be worse than either of the poles it seeks to bridge.
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on October 16, 2011

2011-10-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the passages for October 16, 2011, the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A). All links are to the TNIV via BibleGateway.com, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).
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Not So Long Ago

2011-10-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Although in some sense I consider myself a fan of pop culture, and even make that claim on this blog, it wouldn't take very much scrutiny of that idea to quickly learn that, in many respects, I'm rather behind the times. I'm only familiar with the popular music stars of today in the vaguest sense, I watch more television via Netflix than I do first-run episodes, and I spend more of my time in the car listening to Old Time Radio podcasts than I do to anything actually broadcast live.
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Memories Evoked by "Brazil" and "Babka"

2011-10-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

The students sat lined up behind the tables in opposing rows of four, square black pieces of plastic wedged firmly in their hands in anticipation. The moderator began to read the question.

"What third world country...?"

A buzzer sounded, cutting the question off. In Quick Recall, unlike the modern version of Jeopardy!, interrupting a question is actively encouraged. This has the potential payoff of rewarding a good prediction by getting a response in before the other team has even figured out what is about to be asked, but it also has the obvious risk of potentially requiring an answer before the crucial clue has even been revealed.
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on October 9, 2011

2011-10-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the passages for October 9, 2011, the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A). All Scripture links are to the CEB via BibleGateway.com unless otherwise noted, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead (either with your own Bible, or via the drop-down menu at BibleGateway.com).
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on October 2, 2011

2011-09-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

The church I attend uses a Sunday School program based on the "Godly Play" curriculum. When talking with one of the parents/teachers some time ago, one of the things he talked about is how much attention the curriculum pays to the liturgical calendar. Of particular note, he was impressed by how the "green" weeks on the church calendar (what the Revised Common Lectionary calls "Ordinary Time") are instead referred to as the "Good Green Growing Time." This helps the children (and their parents?) to understand that every Sunday is important, and that God is always at work.
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Bumper Stickers, Divisiveness, and Dialogue

2011-09-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

I'm often both fascinated and discouraged by the bumper stickers that I read when I'm traveling. Bumper stickers are fascinating because they have the advantage of communicating a message to the world in a concise manner. They can be discouraging because that conciseness often means that a message comes off either more blunt, or perhaps even less clear, than might be helpful.
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The Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on September 25, 2011

2011-09-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, I had a weekly feature here I called "The Reflectionary," which grew out of a podcast project I did for a few months. Basically, I would follow the Revised Common Lectionary—that is, the Bible readings that many churches use for their weekly worship gatherings—and post my own questions and comments as I reflected on each reading.
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Seven Dwarfs as Mortal Flesh

2011-09-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

My wife and I put this parody together a number of years ago, about the same time we came up with this one. Riffing on hymns may seem a bit sacrilegious but it's all in good fun. I definitely imagine the Disney version of the dwarfs when I think of this song:
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Sweets, Self-Control, and Spirituality

2011-09-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

I guess I've had marshmallows on the brain lately.

Shortly after making a batch over the Labor Day weekend (seen at left. They turned out really good, if I say so myself), I was reminded of a classic study in delayed gratification, involving marshmallows, that was conducted some 40 years ago.
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Game Show Board Games: The New Tic-Tac-Dough (70s version)

2011-09-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, I featured the 1950's version of the Tic-Tac-Dough board game. This week, I'm discussing the 1970's version, which like the original version, seems to have come out roughly around the time of the show's premiere (1978, in this case, although the copyright actually says 1977 for some reason). The game play of the new show was rather similar to the original version, although they changed pretty quickly from shuffling only after both contestants had been asked a question to shuffling after each question. Also, center-box questions on the show became routinely two-part questions, as opposed to merely "more difficult" than other questions (although like the original, extra time was allowed for the contestant to consider a response).
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When "Personal Responsibility" Crosses the Line

2011-09-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, shortly after the Republican debate scheduled for that evening, I found the following statement on Twitter:

In the last two debates, the GOP debate audience has cheered: 1. 234 executions, 2. Letting uninsured people die

I was already aware of the incident that point #1 refers to, and found Bruce Reyes-Chow's commentary on that incident to be a more than sufficient response. I chose not to throw in "my two cents" at that time, except to share that post via Twitter and Facebook.
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Politics via Phineas and Ferb

2011-09-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying the Disney Channel cartoon Phineas and Ferb via my Netflix subscription recently. Now, so far as I can tell, this cartoon is pretty non-political, and I'm not out to expose any supposed "hidden messages" in the writing (which is always excellent). But while listening to some commentary on the recent Presidential debates (and, specifically, the current Republican front-runner), I got to thinking about how certain Phineas and Ferb catchphrases might be viewed in a different light if presumed to be talking about the candidates.

Consider, for example, the following:
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Attending Fuller's 2011 Faculty and Staff Welcome Event

2011-09-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Fuller celebrated its annual Faculty and Staff Welcome event, which meant that I not only got a free breakfast, but got to see what theme the administration has chosen for the seminary for the coming year. This year's theme was drawn from Philippians 3:10-14, where Christians are encouraged to "pursue the goal" that God has for us. In this vein, our tables were decorated with trophies and supplies to make medals (perhaps in keeping with the biblical illustration of running a race, found more explicitly in 1 Corinthians or maybe 2 Timothy, both also attributed to the Apostle Paul).
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Game Show Board Games: Tic-Tac-Dough (1950s version)

2011-09-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

I've featured a few game show board games on this blog in the past, and it's high time I got back to doing a few more. This time, I'm going to feature the oldest such game in my collection: a 1956 or 57 (my sources differ on the year) edition of the game created for the original Tic-Tac-Dough. Jack Barry (later known to my generation as the host of The Joker's Wild before his death in 1984) is featured on the cover, and was indeed the original host of Tic-Tac-Dough. But since Barry was only host of the show for a few months in 1956, it seems reasonably likely that he had already moved on by the time this game would have been available.
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Regarding The Wrath of God

2011-09-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

I passed by this church the other day (identifying marks removed from the photo to protect the guilty). In case you haven't clicked on the image to read the sign, it says "911 Destruction - Forecast of a Greater Wrath Predicted."

Now, I expect that a great many churches will choose to recognize the 10-year anniversary of the tragic events in New York and elsewhere. It's become so much a part of our cultural fabric that it's hard to imagine not saying something about it. Even so, surely this is not the way to go about it!
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Vote for Admiral Daala!

2011-09-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

From time to time, Hasbro announces a "Fans Choice" poll for their Star Wars action figure line, where fans get to suggest characters to be given a figure. This is the chance to suggest figures that otherwise might not get made. While we're still in the nomination stage of the current go-round, I'm going to throw my support behind a candidate that, to date, has never yet been given a figure (and there are increasingly few such characters of any prominence at all, even including the "Expanded Universe" beyond the movies and Clone Wars series): Admiral Natasi Daala.
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Attempting to Define "Spiritual, but Not Religious"

2011-08-31T10:00:00.000-07:00

The phrase has been around for years, but for some reason, I've stumbled across a couple of posts discussing people who define themselves as "spiritual, but not religious" in recent days. I'll let the folks who wrote those posts speak for themselves, but thing that strikes me as I revisit the term is how the definitions of the terms "spiritual" and "religious" seem to be assumed, rather than clearly defined. I suspect that people may be talking at cross-purposes when they set these terms against each other.
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GoBots Feature: Scooter

2011-08-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there was a company named Tonka. By the mid-1980's, they were known mostly for making sturdy, metal, toy trucks, which they had done quite successfully for several decades already by that point. But like many other companies, Tonka sought to expand, and had placed their footprint in a number of other sectors of the toy market. This included a line of transforming robot toys that came to be known as the most serious competitor to Hasbro's Transformers line: the GoBots.
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A Collection of Good Posts by Other People

2011-08-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

Other bloggers I read regularly do weekly posts where they just share links of other stuff they've found interesting. I'm not yet sure I have the stamina to do that on a reliable schedule, but I think the concept is worth ~~stealing~~ honoring. Here is a list of posts I've been sharing with my friends via Facebook and/or Twitter within the past week or two.
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The Worship Curmudgeon: Prayers of the People

2011-08-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

I'm trying a bit of an experiment here, and it might fall flat on its face. I'm riffing on a theme occasionally used by commentator Frank Deford featuring what he calls "the Sports Curmudgeon." This admittedly grouchy alter-ego gives Deford freedom to make observations on things going on in the realm of his expertise (i.e., sports) that are undeniably sharper and more potentially offensive than he would usually do, in the hopes of achieving a humorous commentary in which legitimate observations may still be found while being over-the-top enough to blunt any actual offense. I don't know whether or not I'll be able to successfully apply this model to the realm of worship, but I'm going to give it a shot. Please bear with me.
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More on "Liking" and "Loving"

2011-08-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

The other day, I posted some reflections after having read an interesting article at Christianity Today. As you may recall, the article ended with these words:

We Christians are called to love people, and as I understand it, this includes loving people who believe differently than we do. I'm not sure how we can love atheists if we don't like them.

Now, these words are in direct contradiction to a mantra I heard quite a bit while I was in college: "You don't have to like someone to love them." I've always taken that mantra as recognizing at least a couple of different realities: 1) We can (and should!) exercise acts of love to people whom we don't know. 2) Perhaps in keeping with the command to "love our enemies," we can (and should!) seek God's best for even those whom we may personally dislike. The words of the Christianity Today article would seem to challenge some of that wisdom.
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Learning to Like Others

2011-08-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

In this age of Facebook, it's perhaps to be expected that one immediately thinks of "liking" something as being as simple as clicking on the appropriate link when one agrees with something that someone else has said. And, indeed, I've found that I use the Facebook "like" feature much more often as an "I agree" button than to denote any kind of actual affection. Perhaps I've lost sight of what it means to truly "like" something....
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Transformers Feature: Rodimus Prime

2011-08-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

The climactic scene of Transformers: The Movie features Hot Rod unlocking the power of the Matrix to become a larger, more mature-looking robot: Rodimus Prime, the new leader of the Autobots. The original toy of Rodimus Prime came out in 1986, at about the same time as (perhaps slightly later than) Hot Rod, and is arguably the first Transformers toy ever made that is the same character as a another toy. I say "arguably," not simply because Galvatron (an upgraded form of Megatron) is more or less in the same category, but the fact is that pretty much no one other than me "argues" for anything different. To most fans, it's obvious that Rodimus Prime is, and always has been, a mature version of Hot Rod. There's absolutely no denying the similarity between the toys, nor even the intention that the toys be related. Such similarity simply doesn't happen by chance.
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Transformers Feature: Hot Rod

2011-08-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

When writing about the original animated Transformers movie the other day, I mentioned that I actually don't have very many of the original toys that came out of the new characters the movie introduced (although readers of my Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? parody will note that I do have Wheelie). Much of this can be easily explained by the fact that my childhood dollars were limited. Perhaps it's a bit more surprising that I haven't gone back and picked these toys up in my adulthood, although I do of course have updated versions of many of these characters (Titanium Scourge is just one example). As to the original molds, Hasbro and Takara have reissued some of these toys in more recent years, and I do have a couple of these, so I'll take advantage of the anniversary of the movie to feature them today and on Friday, starting with the 2000 Japanese reissue of Hot Rod.
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Celebrating The 25th Anniversary of Transformers: The Movie

2011-08-08T00:00:00.001-07:00

25 years ago today, I became 12 years old, and to celebrate, my family went to see an opening day presentation of Transformers: The Movie^*. For modern-day Transformers fans, it probably comes as a bit of a surprise that the franchise had a theatrical movie many years before the Michael Bay live-action movies started setting box office records. But this was the Transformers movie for my generation of Transformers fans.
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Fuller Prayer Garden Update

2011-08-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

About four years ago, I suggested that the Fuller Prayer Garden was going to go away soon. As this picture demonstrates, I was wrong. It's still here, and in fact the area around it was landscaped earlier this year to provide additional prayer space. I also commented back then, as well as when my old apartment building (which was just behind the Prayer Garden) was being taken away, that Fuller was intending to use the site for a new worship center/chapel. Those plans are, I think it's safe to say, on hold for now, having been delayed by multiple factors, not the least of which being the financial difficulty that pretty much everyone has been dealing with for years now.
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The End of my Ordination Process

2011-08-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

What follows is a copy (slightly edited to remove other people's names and identifying characteristics) of the letter I sent earlier this week to the chair of my presbytery's Committee on Preparation for Ministry:
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The Pastor Your Pastor Could Preach Like

2011-08-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

(For full effect, the following should read in a loud, authoritative voice. Starting off in a shower optional.)

"Hello, Christians! Look at your pastor, now back to me, now back at your pastor, now back to me. Sadly, your pastor isn’t me, but if your pastor stopped using generic recycled sermons and switched to Sermon-Right, your pastor could preach like me. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re in a pew with the pastor your pastor could preach like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s an offering plate with two wallets full of cash. Look again, the wallets are now in my pocket! Anything is possible when your preacher sounds like Sermon-Right and not a generic. I’m in a pulpit."

(With apologies to the Old Spice folks. Click below for an audio version.)

Angry Conversations with God - A Review

2011-07-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I challenged people to consider how "real" their relationship with God was, using an analogy of a person who "loved" Johnny Cash from afar. That illustration helped to show that real relationships have highs and lows. They have "bad" days. Real relationships are hard.

By that standard, Susan E. Isaacs, author of Angry Conversations with God, most definitely has a real relationship with God.
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The Hopeless Autograph Line

2011-07-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Right on the heels of the "Transformers Summer Fun" contest, the official Transformers Club Twitter account announced another photo contest, this one tied to the recently-finished San Diego Comic-Con. Fans were asked to depict beast-mode Transformers in some Comic-Con related activity. Here's my entry, with it's accompanying Tweet (click on the photo to enlarge so you can read the sign):
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Donald Duck Skateboarding: The Evolution of an Image

2011-07-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

The second picture that I entered in last week's "Transformers Summer Fun" contest was this one of Donald Duck skating down a ramp at the park. Although the skateboard accessory that comes with this toy made it an obvious choice for depicting a Transformer in a summer activity, I actually had to go through several phases before I was able to settle on this picture as one worthy of submitting to the contest.
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On Comics, Continuity, and Change

2011-07-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the folks at IDW publishing officially announced that they will be picking up the classic Marvel comics Transformers continuity, starting with an "issue 80 1/2" in Spring 2012. Obviously, I'm thrilled with this news, and the irony that I find myself looking to buy any comic books so shortly after Wednesday's post is not lost on me. But if anything could get me to do it, this is definitely it.

Of course, there's a lot of risk in such an undertaking. Not just for IDW, but for those of us who are fans, as well. As almost any Star Wars fan who saw The Phantom Menace will tell you, picking up a well-loved story after a huge gap can easily lead to huge disappointment. In regard to the Marvel Transformers comic, at least one fan has pointed out that some of what made that series work was the constant pressure from Hasbro to keep introducing new characters to keep up with the toys they were trying to sell, and that this caused the writers to create stories and personalities that would likely never have come to exist if they were simply left to their own devices. Any new Marvel-continuity continuation, no longer having that recipe of obligations, may not be able to reach the same creative heights as a result. Even so, since writer Simon Furman tells us that the plan is only to go as far as "issue 100" and then conclude, maybe that's not such a bad thing.
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The End of Superman's Marriage

2011-07-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Now, if you don't follow comic books, you may well be saying to yourself "Superman's married?" Yes, my friends, and he has been for nearly 15 years now. But ever since comic book fans learned that DC Comics would be making massive changes to their fictional universe, and resetting all of their titles (including the 900+ issue runs of Action Comics and Detective Comics) to "issue 1" in a couple of months, we've suspected that the marriage of Clark Kent to Lois Lane was one of the realities on the chopping block. Alas, it's been made official in the past few days. Superman's days as a married man are numbered.
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How Action Master Thundercracker Spent His Summer Vacation

2011-07-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, the BotCon Twitter account announced a photo contest to celebrate their 3000th follower, encouraging fans to submit a picture of their favorite Transformer in some summer activity. Naturally, I had to make sure that at least one of my entries (we were allowed up to three) featured the recent BotCon Action Master Thundercracker. The entry I chose to submit, featuring Thundercracker on a dirt bike (Energon High Wire, in fact), may be seen at left.
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Transformers Feature: Animated Cheetor

2011-07-15T06:30:00.000-07:00

With the Los Angeles area facing potential traffic mayhem this weekend, I tried to work through which Transformer I hadn't already featured (but which I had available) might be an appropriate match to the situation. I decided that the recent Transformers club exclusive toy, Animated "TransTech" Cheetor, deserved some attention. Of course, I doubt that Cheetor would be any better at handling a traffic jam than any other Transformer. Indeed, he'd probably cause them more than most.
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Plumbing - Caring for the World's Most Important Invention

2011-07-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

I spent a bit of my post on Monday suggesting that certain infrastructure needs should be given greater priority. At the time, I was thinking about roads and traffic. Today, recent events in my hometown of Louisville, KY have me thinking about water and plumbing. I've heard it said that plumbing may well be the most important invention of all time, and while there's certainly room for debate on that statement, I think that a very strong case can be made.
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The Approaching Carmageddon

2011-07-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

For those who don't live in the LA area, no, I didn't make up that particular pun (and those in the LA area already know what I'm talking about).

This weekend, a 10-mile stretch of the I-405 Freeway on the west side of LA--the entirety of the freeway between the US-101 and the I-10--will be shut down for improvements. The signs along the highways (apparently everywhere from Bakersfield to San Diego) say "EXPECT BIG DELAY." I don't think anyone actually disputes that the improvements are needed, nor that the drive along that stretch will be much easier after they're done. But the sacrifice needed to make those improvements, if only for a weekend, looks to be pretty painful.
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The End of an Era: The Final Space Shuttle Launch

2011-07-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

I made the effort to watch the final launch of the space shuttle program this morning, as the Atlantis took to the skies one last time. While I'm forced to acknowledge the reality that 30 years is really a long time for a program of this kind to last, I'm still somewhat sad to see the shuttle go.
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When Real is Just Shorthand for Rotten

2011-07-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

I hear a lot about the need for "authenticity" these days. We're told that modern generations (by which I mean not only my own, but especially those people younger than I am) value authenticity very highly, and are deeply suspicious of anything "inauthentic." Now, obviously, no one, of any generation, claims to value "inauthencity," per se. And, indeed, I wonder how much of our current push for "authenticity" isn't actually the positive thing that it sounds like at first.
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Is Our Relationship with God "Real"?

2011-07-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, on the Fourth of July holiday, David LaMotte posted an entry titled "Interdependence Day" in which he reflected on the 8th anniversary of his engagement to his wife (I seem to have forgotten that he got engaged shortly before my own wife and I got married, but I digress). Although the whole thing is worth reading, I want to highlight the following insight:

Chewing on the reality of our relationship makes me think of a great story that my friend Hugh Hollowell tells. Hugh is a big Johnny Cash fan, and claims to know all the words to all of his songs. He loves Johnny Cash. And he also loves his wife. “But,” he explains, “Johnny and me never have a bad day.” That’s because the relationship with Johnny Cash is an imagined one. He has a relationship with the idea of Johnny Cash, not with Johnny. Real relationships are harder than that, and also much, much richer.

A Transformers Drabble

2011-07-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Before BotCon, club member Jeysie posted a little contest over at the #TF-Timelines page at DeviantArt. Basically, we were asked to write a "drabble" set in any Transformers Club-related universe. For those that don't know, a "drabble" is a piece of fiction that is exactly 100 words long. I've always been partial not only to the Marvel Comics Transformers universe, but to the Ratchet/Megatron storyline that featured so prominently there (here's just a sample), and since the club had done their "Classics" storyline in the future of that universe, I figured this little bit was fair game.
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Transformers Feature: Shattered Glass Thundercracker

2011-06-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

During the nomination period for the recent "Transformers Hall of Fame," I posted the following banner in an attempt in inject some humor into the proceedings.

Thanks to BotCon 2011, I can now say that the answer is "yes!"
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Un-Cool Churches vs. Excellence?

2011-06-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Rachel Held Evans wrote a piece on the need for “Un-Cool” churches. It has generated quite a lot of buzz, both within the post’s own comment section (243 comments at the time of this writing!) and on other blogs that have chosen to weigh in. Clearly, there is something there that resonates with people, and rightly so. Yet, I find myself struggling with some potential implications of taking these words seriously.
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The Return of a Transforming Seminarian Tradition

2011-06-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

Back when the first Transformers Club exclusives came out, I grabbed a picture of the new boxes alongside my cat, Turtle, who was a rather curious critter. I did the same when the next set of exclusives came out nearly two years later. By the time the third set of exclusives came out, Turtle was gone. Now that we have another cat, I decided to attempt to restart the tradition, but I have to confess, Kona really isn't as curious about this kind of thing as Turtle was, and so getting a decent shot was much harder to do.

I'm getting ready for a week of traveling, and thus haven't had time to do much else with these toys yet, nor to take the pictures I'd like to take of the other Transformers I'm hoping to feature here in the near future. I'll try to keep up with posting this week, but both the schedule and the content will reflect what I'm able to do while on the road.

BotCon Freebies

2011-06-17T00:00:00.001-07:00

Everyone talks about the toys you can buy exclusive to every BotCon. Some folks complain about the high prices, which isn't any surprise, given the price tags of about $300 for the main box set (5 toys) and about $100 for each of the souvenir sets (2 toys each). But surprisingly little is said about the stuff one can get for free at the convention. Well, there's usually discussion about the "attendee freebie" which is given to folks who bought the $300 sets and attended the convention. This year, that toy is Fisitron, and it really is a pretty cool toy. But there were a lot of other potential freebies, as well, that don't get so much buzz. This review is by no means exhaustive, but I can at least show off a few things.
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Less-Than-Perfect Weddings

2011-06-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Weddings have been on my mind a bit lately. I have not one, but two cousins who will be getting married this summer. Also, one of my co-workers is getting married, while another will celebrate her first wedding anniversary (in Rome! Can you believe it?), while yet another is going to be attending a friend's wedding with her boyfriend. On top of all that, my wife is getting ready to officiate her first wedding as a priest this weekend. I've heard it said that these things seem to happen in waves, and that's certainly true in my life right now.
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Confusion and Clarity

2011-06-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

I used to watch Doogie Howser, M.D. when I was in high school. It's actually a bit mind-boggling to realize that Neil Patrick Harris is not only currently better known for his role as Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother, but that the Stinson role will (rightly!) be better remembered as Harris' legacy into the future.
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Transformers Feature: Micromaster Erector

2011-06-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

My original intention was to have this posted last week, so that it would be covered before the BotCon 2011 Transformers Hall of Fame ceremony. Sadly, I got too busy with other things, but I can still talk about the Hall of Fame and this toy's somewhat unique place in it.
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The BotCon 2011 Experience

2011-06-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Now that BotCon 2011 is over, the message boards have been engaging in the traditional debate about how this year's convention compares to conventions of years past. There is already an emerging consensus that in terms of the news to come out of the convention, there really hasn't been that much of interest. For those who didn't actually attend the convention, that means that the convention as a whole appears to be one of the less successful ones.

For those of us who did attend the convention, a different impression quickly becomes evident.
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Volunteering at BotCon 2011

2011-06-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back at work now, having spent most of the past three and a half days on my feet attending, enjoying, and assisting at BotCon. By volunteering both with the convention itself, as well as with Captured Prey, I intentionally set out to make this experience a bit different than what I'd had in the past. I find myself at the end very tired, but glad to have made that decision.
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It's Real and it's Spectacular

2011-06-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

BotCon 2011 Begins

2011-06-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

If you're a Transformers fan, you don't need me to tell you that BotCon 2011 is about to begin (and, indeed, for some of us, it's already started!). If you're not, then I'll have to try a little harder to provide something of interest for you to read in the next few days. But bear with me, and I'll try to make it worth it!
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Your Future is in Front of You

2011-05-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

This post was written for the Fuller Blogs website, where it first appeared this past weekend.

It's that time of year again, when graduation looms just around the corner. Even though I myself got my degree from Fuller several years ago, this is a season that affects everyone in the Fuller community. Whether you're a graduating student looking forward to the completion of your own degree,or a current student just looking to get through your current class and perhaps preparing to say good-bye to some of your friends, or a staff member preparing end-of-fiscal-year budgets or closing out committee work for the academic year, the rhythm of the academic cycle ensures that graduation time is an important season for all of us at Fuller.
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